In the Bay Area there are 4 MINI dealers with full service facilities: San Francisco, Pleasanton, Mountain View and Concord. I was interested in hearing feedback on particularly good experiences you had with these dealers' service facilities. Which service gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling of competence and confidence?

I realize that bad experiences are always a lot more fun and satisfying to share but let's try and focus on the exceptionally positive ones. I hope that by tallying up the best experiences I'll get a sense of which service facility is the best.

Remember, if you don't have anything nice to say...

 

I've only been to east bay and concord. They LOVE to wash my car! The person I spoke with at SF was very pleasant. If I needed to take my car back to a dealer, that is where I would try. I think individual experiences are going to vary alot depending on what the situation is. Start at the one closest to you and if it doesn't work out move on to the next on. That is my opinion after working at one of those dealerships for 3 years. I hope that wasn't too negative. I do love my mini though

 

I bought by MINI at East Bay Mini in January of 2003 and have taken her in to East Bay MINI for all maintainence and a few minor fixes that came up when I first bought the car. I have never had a bad experience at EBM. I always call to make an appointment and bring my car in first thing in the morning on the appointed day. You don't get a loaner car but they do have a guy who will drop you off and pick you up in the local area (well once they were going to give me a rental because the driver was really busy). Here are they things I have had done at EBM:

*Fix drivers door when interior handle would not work.
*Replace cigerette lighter when cell phone charger killed it
*Oil changes I, II, and III
*Service I
*Replaced front brakes and rotors
*Looked at tires when I had a leak in my runflat. They referred me to tire shop around the corner from EBM
*replaced front window pillar when it came off after someone else replace windshield

All of this work has been done under warranty (I purchased the extended (50K mile) warranty) so I have never had to pay them a dime. They only thing I have not had done at EBM was my windshield replacement. They wanted $800 to replace it. I got it done much cheaper by safelite autoglass.

My bottom line. At East Bay MINI, they service advisors are knowledgeable and attentive, it is easy to get an appointment, they are open on Saturdays, I have always gotten the car back when they said it would be ready, they wash your car when their done and they seem to try had for customer satisfaction. I HOPE THEY STAY THIS WAY!

Upon previewing the reply, I thought I should just add, I do not work for East Bay MINI just love my car and love the service I get from them.

 

You said STRAIGHT talk about local dealers....but do not want to hear anything negative.

O.K....we picked our MINI S up from Concord MINI over two years ago, best first time buyer treatment imaginable, great freindly people, coffee, video games and all.

When our first service was due, my wife and I were very glad to find out that Concord MINI was open on Saturdays for servicing. Work always got done within a couple of hours even during warranty work. They've replaced Coolant tank twice, third was the charm. Also had them replace a leaky valve cover gasket that I pointed out, no prob.

We also got to experience the ol complimentary car wash... made the first our last. .

All the dealers in the Bay Area are......I want to say, ah-ite.
I feel alot better now that Brutus is all ours, I'm sure the service dudes have had a lot of training cough practice cough working on people's MINIs in the last two years so some things I dealt with shouldn't be happening to others.
We're all in the end.

James

BTW, anyone going on the Napa run??? check out Norcal section on the forum.

 

Brought it in twice for warranty work. Once at EB and once at SF. EB didn't wash the car but did replace the r&p. That probably wasn't the issue since SF replaced the steering column the next visit. SF didn't have my part and ordered it but it didn't come in so I retrieve the car after three days of waiting. They didn't wash it either but that's okay cause it was raining. EB gave a ride to and from Bart while SF gave a $10 cab voucher. Neither offered a rental although SF did offer a free detail since I waited so long for my car.

Neither was good or bad...so I am neutral so far.

p.s. the unavailable part was not for the steering column but for another problem.

 

Hey that reminded me of a free detail we were offered from Scott at MINI, when the time came BMW needed to confirm the agreement with Scott and this and that. We bailed.

 

Yea, I won't even bother asking. My wife said I should but I am realistic and it's more hassle then it's worth. I'd rather have another Mini to drive around.

 

My name is David Savell, and I'm the Service Advisor at MINI of Concord, and I've found that our customers love our service.

Every day, we have so many new customers from the San Francisco area, and they tend to be very unhappy with the service at SF MINI, ranging from customer service issues to the fact that they are booked out between 4-8 weeks at any given moment.

In most cases, you can book an appointment with us either same-day or within a day or two, mainly because we recently opened a new shop dedicated to MINI service, staffed with our our best and most experienced MINI technicians.

If you have any questions, please give me a call at 925-682-3577 x130. MINI service is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 8AM to 5PM.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=38371

David

 

I have a question; does your dealership give out loaners for repairs that might take longer then one day?

 

Initially, I was lukewarm on Concord's service - no complaints, but nothing to write home about either.

David has changed that. He is a tuner who understands that some of us mod our cars and he is very upfront with their policies. He is also dedicated solely to the MINI end of the dealership and goes out his way in everything he does.

Even if I lived closer to Mountain View, SF or East Bay, I would make the trip to Concord to have my car serviced. I can say it is a genuine pleasure to do business with David.

 

They offered us a loaner while our car stayed there all day for Insp. 2. I don't think we were going to be charged for it since we would have been paying for the service.

We met David Savell just recently, seems like a cool guy. He made sure i knew what the Insp. 2 covered and told me what needed to be changed.

 

So how much is the Inspection 2?

 

So what are their policies on modded Minis?

 

Do any of the Bay Area dealerships have free Wi-Fi access?

 

The policy of my service department is to give out loaners (enterprise rental cars) for all Inspection I or II services, for warranty concerns that we determine after diagnosis are safety issues, and for warranty concerns, after we have diagnosed them to require major heavy duty parts replacement (i.e. transmissions, etc.), that take more than one day to complete the repairs.

David

 

good question, I'll ask my managers if we have that availability.

I know that inside the parts department we have one or two cubicles for customers to use that feature computers with internet access.

 

I have several customers with modded Minis.

If a customer comes in with a concern, that we determine is due to the use of aftermarket parts, then we will notify the customer that we cannot perform the repairs under warranty.

We are extremely objective in our determination of whether or not aftermarket parts are the cause of a concern.

If your vehicle is due for a recall for DME (engine computer) programming, and the customer tells us they are using aftermarket programming or piggyback DME controllers, and asks us not to perform the recall, then we comply with their request.

I have some customers that bleed their own brakes with aftermarket fluid, and we perform services paid for by the free maintenance contract, like brake fluid flushes, so if the customer requests ahead of time that we don't bleed their brakes, then we won't.

David

 

I'll reply with a quote tomorrow.

Please let me know if you have a M/T or CVT Cooper, or Cooper S.

I'll also quote you for the costs to perform brake and coolant flushes as well, as we offer discounted prices to perform these services at the same time as having an Inspection I or II performed.

The service interval for brake fluid flushes is 2 years from the production date, and every 2 years thereafter, and for coolant flushes its 4 years from the production date, and every 4 years thereafter.

David

 

I also wanted to add that we offer a complimentary carwash for all service visits, and if a customer is short on time, and/or waiting for the repairs, and declines the carwash, then we will offer a raincheck for a carwash at a later date.

David

 

Thanks, David.

I have a MCS but I only have 8k on the car and it's less then a year old so it might be awhile before I need Insp II but it will be good to know what it will cost me later on down the road.

 

David,

Your dealership sounds great. I have to ask a stupid question, when is insp I suppose to be done?

 

Just fyi, when I first called SF they referred me to go to Concord if I wanted immediate service, so this might account for some of the traffic coming from that direction. Since that first visit a month or so ago they have increased their techs, or something along those lines, and will be building a new Mini service area sometime soon, and the wait has dropped dramatically to a few days when I last called. That time they did not refer me to you guys.

I'm sure Concord is super, but its just too far for me for practical visits

 

It's more than the booking time - both Mini and BMW of SF have a long and storied history of crappy customer service and general incompetence.

At the last Bay Area Pulley Party there was a gentleman there who claimed that Mini of SF had refused to address the brown coolant issue in his 2003 MCS because he had a CAI installed

 

Sorry I've been really busy lately, current price for an Inspection II is around $423.

David

 

The cycle of service for your vehicle is as follows:

1st. service = Oil Service

2nd. service = Inspection I

3rd. service = Oil Service

4th service = Inspection II

this cycle repeats itself indefinately.

David